Yeast is Beast

…and leads to a delicious bread feast to say the least!

Say it with me: Yeast is my friend.

Louder! I can’t hear you.

Every night before bed, I take some time to flip through the bread books I borrowed from the library. Not only has this led to sweet breadiful dreams, I’ve been absorbing little tidbits of information here and there. Although these tidbits are simple, they’ve instantly made a difference in the quality of my bread loaves.

Recipes

Loaf #4 was a Walnut Whole Wheat Bread from King Arthur Flour Whole Grain Baking (I found the same recipe online here on their website). I chose the recipe because Peter loves walnuts and thinks every loaf of bread should be made with walnuts.

Loaf #5 was a 100% Whole Wheat Nut & Seed Loaf from the King Arthur website. I liked this one more than #4.

It’s a good thing we bought a 2 lb. bag of walnuts from Costco!

Back to our friend…

I get giddy when I come across sections on yeast in my books. I think I’ve read the yeast pages about 4-5 times each. Like I said, I was once intimidated by yeast but instead of letting it scare me away, I decided I’d learn more about it. Knowledge is power!

Here’s what I’ve learned thus far. After reading through this, you should at least be comfortable enough to buy an envelope/jar of yeast from the store.

Types of Yeast

1) Active Dry Yeast

The kind you “proof.” The kind you have to mix with warm water (110-115* F) and sugar to get it to foam up. So basically, the kind that scares you away from baking bread.

Read on…

2) Instant Yeast (the one to buy)

I learned from Alton Brown that instant yeast needs no proofing. It can be added directly to the dry ingredients. Easy, right? King Flour also recommends instant yeast and uses instant yeast exclusively in the book’s recipes.

The first three loaves of bread I made I used active dry yeast (#1), simply because we had a few envelopes in our pantry. Then I bought a jar of instant yeast and have been using it ever since. My loaves using instant yeast have come out better than those using active dry yeast. I like that I don’t have to go the extra step of measuring the temperature of my water and mixing in the yeast. And then waiting. I hate waiting.

Alton Brown has a long explanation for why he recommends instant yeast (as per usual), but it basically comes down to convenience.

[There are other types of yeast (rapidrise and fresh/cake) but I'm not going to go into those.]

Tips and Pointers

If you are using Active Dry Yeast:

• Be sure to measure the temperature of the water so it’s between 110-115*F.
• First stir in a spoonful of sugar and wait for it to dissolve
• THEN gently stir in yeast
• If the yeast doesn’t foam up, that means it’s dead and you cant use it.
• You can kill the yeast by using water that is too hot.
• You want to avoid direct contact with salt because salt and yeast are not friends

If you are using Instant Yeast:

• Your dough temperature should be between 70 and 95* F. Most recipes call for warm water so your dough will be warm.
• Sometimes instant yeast is marked as “bread machine” yeast. It’s the same thing.

Things that slow down yeast activity:

• Too low or too high temperatures. Best growth for rising is between 70 and 90*F.
• Salt
• Spices
• Too much sugar
• Chlorine…so use filtered water

.

What if the recipe calls for active dry yeast but I want to use instant yeast (or vice versa)?

Alton says you can do a 1:1 exchange. While it’s not technically exact, he says it’s never failed him. Alton is a pretty detail-oriented guy so I trust what he says. Some recommend using 25% less instant yeast than what is called for in active dry yeast. Reason being, 25% of active dry yeast is already dead.

Alton and King Flour use instant yeast in their recipes. Martha uses both active dry and instant.

Yes, we’re on a first name basis here.

Make sense?

I tried to write an un-intimidating post on yeast. If you are confused by what I wrote, just go out and buy instant yeast or bread machine yeast and you’ll be set for life. You don’t have to worry about soaking, foaming, proofing or anything “scary.”

You’ll pretty much just sprinkle it in like cinnamon. It’ll all make sense after your first loaf, I promise.

***

Tell me…that you are no longer scared of yeast!

…and if you have any further questions.